U.S. patent application number 13/551284 was filed with the patent office on 2012-11-08 for method and system for processing services.
This patent application is currently assigned to INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. Invention is credited to CHUN E. MA, XIN SHENG MAO, MATTHEW WANG, LI YI, JUN ZHANG.
Application Number | 20120284365 13/551284 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 43618704 |
Filed Date | 2012-11-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120284365 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
MA; CHUN E. ; et
al. |
November 8, 2012 |
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING SERVICES
Abstract
A method for processing services can include receiving a request
for a service; sending the result of the service in which at least
one data item is tagged; in response to a selection of the tagged
data item, determining other services associated with the service
based on a service template of the service; and providing the other
services associated with the service as options, wherein the other
services take the at least one data item as inputs to provide
outputs thereof.
Inventors: |
MA; CHUN E.; (BEIJING,
CN) ; MAO; XIN SHENG; (BEIJING, CN) ; WANG;
MATTHEW; (BEIJING, CN) ; YI; LI; (BEIJING,
CN) ; ZHANG; JUN; (BEIJING, CN) |
Assignee: |
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
CORPORATION
ARMONK
NY
|
Family ID: |
43618704 |
Appl. No.: |
13/551284 |
Filed: |
July 17, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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13498955 |
Mar 29, 2012 |
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PCT/EP2010/062769 |
Aug 31, 2010 |
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13551284 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
709/217 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/06 20130101;
G06Q 50/10 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
709/217 |
International
Class: |
G06F 15/16 20060101
G06F015/16 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Sep 29, 2009 |
CN |
200910179119.9 |
Claims
1. A method for processing services, comprising: receiving a
request for a service; sending the result of the service in which
at least one data item is tagged; responsive to a selection of the
tagged data item, determining, using a processor, other services
associated with the service based on a service template of the
service; and providing the other services associated with the
service as options; wherein the other services take the at least
one data item as inputs and provide outputs thereof.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining other
services associated with the service based on a service template of
the service further comprises: determining the service template of
the service; determining other service templates associated with
the service template; and determining the other services based on
the other service templates.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein determining the service
template of the service further comprises: determining the context
of the service; and determining the service template based on the
context of that service.
4. The method according to claim 2, wherein providing the other
services associated with that service as options further comprises:
ranking the other services; and providing the other services
associated with that service as options according to their
ranks.
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein ranking the other
service options further comprises: according to the association
scores between the other service templates and that service
template, determining the association scores between the other
services and that service; ranking the other services based on the
association scores, wherein services with higher association scores
are ranked before services with lower scores.
6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising: receiving a
selection of another service from among the other services; and
increasing the association score between the service template of
the another selected service and the template of that service.
7. The method according to claim 4, further comprising: receiving
the association scores between at least one of the other services
and said service for updating the rank of the other services.
8. The method according to claim 3, further comprising: determining
the other service options based on the context of said service and
tags attached to the other services.
9. The method according to claim 3, further comprising: determining
the other service options based on the context of said service and
metadata of the other services.
10. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:
determining the other service options based on the context of said
service and descriptive notes of the other services.
11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the service templates
include the URIs of the corresponding services.
12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving
a selection of one of the other services; and associating the said
service with the selected service.
13-20. (canceled)
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 13/498,955, filed on 29 Mar. 2012, which is the national stage
of PCT/EP2010/062769, filed 31 Aug. 2010, designating, inter alia,
the United States and claiming priority to Chinese Patent
Application 200910179119.9 filed 29 Sep. 2009, each of which is
hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] One or more embodiments relate to computer network
technology and, more particular, to a method and a system for
processing services. With the rapid development of electrical
techniques over the last twenty years, there has been an explosive
growth in the performance and capacity of computer networks,
particularly, the Internet. Many users interact with web servers
for some personal or business purposes. In this regard, users may
browse and exploit various web services, such as conference
organization, flight booking, hotel reserving, customs shown, and
the like. As to conference organization, for example, a user may
wish to reserve a meeting room, check notifications about present
schedule and receive messages from participants over a network. For
online flight booking, a user may need to check the departure time
of the flight, the airline company information, confirm the flight,
or pay for the flight. During the execution of the above actions,
it is necessary for users to correlate and exploit several
correlated services.
[0003] However, there is a lack of associations between various
services on networks. In other words, there are no links between
the services. Users usually have to access several services
depending upon their own experiences and knowledge, copying and
pasting some data between multiple services to achieve a particular
purpose.
BRIEF SUMMARY
[0004] In view of the above disadvantages, according to one
embodiment of this invention, a method for processing services is
provided, comprising: receiving a request for a service; sending
the result of the service in which at least one data item is
tagged; determining, using a processor, other services associated
with the service based on a service template of the service in
response to a selection of the tagged data item; and providing the
other services associated with the service as options; wherein the
other services take the at least one data item as inputs to provide
their outputs.
[0005] According to another embodiment of this invention, a system
for processing services is also provided. The system can include a
processor configured to execute program code, wherein responsive to
executing the program code, wherein responsive to executing the
program code, the processor implements one or more modules,
comprising: a request reception module for receiving a request for
a service; a result transmission module for transmitting the result
of the service in which at least one data item is tagged; an other
service determination module for determining other services
associated with the service based on a service template of the
service in response to a selection of the tagged data item; and a
service option provision module for providing the other services
associated with the service as options; wherein the other services
take the at least one data item as inputs to provide their
outputs.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0006] The aforementioned and other objects, features and
advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from
the detailed description of embodiments of this invention, which
are shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0007] FIG. 1 is a flowchart for processing services according to
one embodiment of this invention; and
[0008] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the system for processing
services according to another embodiment of this invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0009] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with
reference to the methods and apparatus of the embodiments, wherein
each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams,
and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or
block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program
instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided
to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose
computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to
produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via
the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing
apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts
specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or
blocks.
[0010] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a
computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other
programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular
manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable
memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction
means which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart
and/or block diagram block or blocks.
[0011] The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a
computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a
series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or
other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented
process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or
other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the
functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram
block or blocks.
[0012] FIG. 1 is the flowchart for processing services according to
one embodiment of this invention, showing a method 100 for
processing services, such as, web services. With this method, two
or more services may be associated together to provide a
comprehensive service as a whole. For example, as to a particular
article, a searching service, a performance comparing service, a
price comparing service, a payment service, a delivery service and
the like may be associated together to satisfy purchase
requirements of users. The method also can be used to dynamically
provide some service options. Furthermore, the method 100 can
include but is not limited to be executed on a functional
server.
[0013] As shown in FIG. 1, the method 100 may comprises the
following steps. At step 110, receiving a request for a service.
For example, a request for retrieving a book is received. At step
120, the result of that service is sent, in which at least one data
item is tagged. For example, at least one data item contained in
the result may be tagged through, for example, coloring,
underlining or highlighting the descriptive contents. As to the
result of the retrieving service, some book names or book numbers
may be tagged as data items for the use of other services. As to
web applications on user side or Mashup applications, a number of
APIs (Application Programming Interface) may be provided for
developers or clients with respect to the above service to enable
interaction. These APIs may comprise but not limited to REST APIs,
JavaScript APIs, Microformat or Widgets, which can provide users
with the capabilities of searching for, navigating through, or
acquiring relative web services in a certain environment through
user clients. Thus, lower technical requirements are expected for
users, significantly simplifying user experiences and enabling more
users to utilize the service. A user may receive the result of the
service through his client in which at least one data item is
tagged, and the user may select the at least one data item if he
wants to learn about the service related to the data item.
[0014] In the method shown in FIG. 1, at step 130 in response to
the selection of the tagged data item, other services associated
with the service can be determined based on a service template of
the service.
[0015] Herein, a service template may refer to the summarized
common features of a kind of service (e.g., service for providing
book prices based on ISBNs), which may comprise some parameters for
which different values may lead to different services. Languages
such as XML, HTML and the like can be adopted to describe the
service features and parameters in the template.
[0016] For instance, a URI with a parameter is a service template.
When the parameter is determined, a particular service can be
determined by the template accordingly. For example, a template of
book service can be in the form of
http://www.example.com/books/{ISBN}, wherein {ISBN} is a parameter
representing a specific book number. Upon the determination of the
book number, a service directed to a specific book can be
determined according to the template. If the book number is 23456,
for example, a service aimed to a particular book at
http://www.example.com/books/23456 can be obtained through the
template. As to the web widget service template for stock query
services below, according to the different value of the parameter
StockCode, different stock query services may be obtained.
TABLE-US-00001 <iw:iwidget name="gadget"
xmlns:iw="http://www.ibm.com/ xmlns/prod/iWidget"
iScope="com.ibm.mm.google.gadget.gadgetClass"
allowInstanceContent="true" supportedModes="view edit" mode="view"
lang="en"> <iw:itemSet id="attributes" > <iw:item
id="StockCode" value="{StockCode}" readOnly="false"/>
</iw:itemSet> <iw:content mode="view"> <![CDATA[
<div class="gadgetContent"></div> ]]>
</iw:content> </iw:iwidget>
[0017] By means of the data item, the service can be associated
with other services that take the at least one data item as their
inputs to provide their outputs. Wherein determining other services
associated with the service based on the service template of the
service may further comprises: determining the service template of
the service; determining other service templates associated with
the service template; and determining the other services based on
the other service templates. Wherein, a service template may
comprise the URI of a corresponding service, which is also referred
to as URI service template in this description for the simplicity
of its reference.
[0018] Wherein determining other service options associated with
the service may further comprises: determining the other service
options above mentioned based on the context of the service and
tags provided to other services. Further, it is also possible to
determine the other service options based on the context of the
service and metadata of other services. Further, the other service
options can be determined based on the context of the service and
the descriptive notes of other services.
[0019] Wherein, determining the service template of the service may
further comprise: determining the context of the service, and
determining the service template based on the context of that
service. The context of the service may comprise its URI. The
context of the service can be sent from user side, or can be
initiatively collected by a server during its service. The context
may comprise one or more data inputted by users in the service
environment, data provided by the service, or the combinations
thereof. The template of the service can be determined through
search or query based on its context, so as to determine the other
service options associated with the service.
[0020] In the method shown in FIG. 1, at step 140, other services
associated with that service are provided as options. Thus, a user
can switch to the other services by selecting other services, or
associate the service with the other services. The other service
options may comprise one or more other services that can be
determined based on a lot of feedbacks from users. Those skilled in
the art may understand that the other service templates may be used
as the options directly, and may take the at least one data item
said above as its input after the user select the options, or the
data item can be inputted into the other service templates directly
to obtain the other service options.
[0021] Wherein providing the other services associated with that
service as options may further comprise: ranking the other
services; and providing the other services associated with that
service as options according to their ranks. Wherein ranking the
other service options may further comprise: according to the
association scores between the other service templates and that
service template, determining the association scores (or the
weights) between the other services and that service; ranking the
other services based on the association scores, wherein services
with higher association scores are ranked before services with
lower scores.
[0022] According to another embodiment of this invention, the above
method may further comprise: receiving a selection of another
service from among the other services; and increasing the
association score between the service template of the another
selected service and the template of that service. The above method
may further comprise: receiving the association scores between at
least one of the other services and the service for updating the
rank of the other services. Thus, the administrator of the related
services can provide the associations between the services based on
his professional experiences. Wherein, the services can be
identified by the service templates. For example, an URI template
can be used to identify a service, or the template can be defined
by metadata or descriptive data of the service to identify the
service. The associations between specific services can be
reflected as the associations between the service templates.
Therefore, the instances of the associated service templates can be
correlated with each other by the service temple.
[0023] According to another embodiment of this invention,
determining the other service options associated with the above
service may further comprise: determining the service template of
the above service; determining the other service templates
associated with that service template; and determining the other
services based on the other service templates. The other service
templates may be used as the options directly, and the at least one
data item said above can be taken as their inputs after the user
select the options, or the data item can be inputted into the other
service templates directly to obtain the other service options.
[0024] According to one embodiment of this invention, the resource
of a service can be identified by URI (Universal Resource
Identifier). An URI template can define a kind of service. In other
words, the URI of a service can be matched with a URI template to
identify a kind of service. For example, a book related service can
be identified by the URI template
http://www.example.com/books/{ISBN}.
[0025] The URI template may use several parameters or doesn't have
any parameter. For example, ISBN that represents the value of a
book number can be used as a service parameter, such as 12345, and
the hyperlink "http://www.example.com/books/12345" is a book
service, which can be found through a string matching
procedure.
The parameter of the URI template can be used as the data item of
the book service and can be highlighted in the service result. The
parameter can also be associated with another parameter inputted
into other service, for example, the input data items of another
book related service may comprise the ISBN. The book related
service can be connected to other book related services through the
ISBN within its URI. For example, another book related service may
provide book price by ISBN, that is, taking an ISBN as an input and
outputting the price of the book. Hence, the data item in the
service result can be identified in the URI and its linked paths.
Associating two services with URI can establish the correlation
between those services conveniently, which can simplify
relationship representations between services and speed up the
search and query of associated services.
[0026] Thus, a URI template can be used to define a kind of
service, for example, services providing access to various books.
The correlations between services can be determined in real time
through the URI without the tedious efforts of predetermining the
relationships between lots of services.
[0027] In response to a user selection of the data item within the
service result, a JavaScript in the service page can invoke a REST
API, which can search other associated services using the URI of
the service, the parameter of the service, or the linked paths of
the URI.
[0028] According to REST in which the whole network is observed
from the perspective of resource, resources distributed throughout
the network can be determined by URIs. Applications on clients can
acquire the representations of resources through the URIs, and the
acquisition of these representations can cause the applications to
transfer their states. With the continuous acquisition of resource
representations, client applications can continually transfer their
states, i.e., so called as representational state transfer.
[0029] REST are usually based on widely prevalent protocols and
standards, using such as HTTP, URI, XML, and HTML. Resources are
assigned by URI. Operations implemented on resources may comprise
acquiring, creating, modifying and deleting resource, which exactly
correspond to the GET, POST, PUT and DELETE methods of the HTTP
protocol. Resource operations can be implemented through resource
representation operations. Depending on whether the reader is a
human being, a machine, a client application utilizing the web
service, or a web browser, the resources can be represented in the
form of XML or HTML.
[0030] According to another embodiment of this invention, one web
service may provide some data, such as some ISBNs. Other web
service may do something relatively and require some input, such as
some ISBNs, by which it can provide prices of those books. Thus,
two web services can be associated with each other, wherein the
data provided by one web service can be utilized by another
service. Through establishing such associations, diversity methods
can be invoked when utilizing such a service.
[0031] Mashup procedure is a procedure that may associate two or
more web services. Two or more web services can be associated
through data input and output, that is, one web service may provide
data that can be used by another service to complete its
predetermined function.
[0032] Through establishing associations between services, various
services can function smartly together. The associations between
web services can be established in many manners.
[0033] For example, the administrators of some dedicated systems
may provide professional web service associations in the manner of
system configuration. This manner may be the default manner for
associating web services, which is the common method for
associating multiple web services in a particular field so as to
complete particular functions of that field. The relationships
between services can be defined by an administrator and can be
added to the dedicated system through APIs or a specification of
data relationship definitions. For example, it can be queried what
data is needed by a web service A through an API, then other
services that provide such data can be retrieved with some tools.
In general, business partners are more familiar with their own
business fields. The above manner can be used to initialize some
web service systems.
[0034] As another example, during the implementation of a matter by
user themselves, the matter is observed to recognize the same
and/or similar interaction relationships between several web
services (such as, data input and output relationship). Unlike the
limited knowledge owned by administrators of particular systems and
business partners, users may have diversity knowledge, and the web
services may be used in a variety of manners, wherein those
relatively reasonable or optimal ones may likely have many
identical or similar aspects. The data interaction procedures
between web services are just comparable to the information
communication procedures in real society, for which the typical
ones are always repeated by most people.
[0035] Typical interaction relationships can be recognized through
extracting typical interactions from those implemented between the
web services used by many people. Then the associations between the
web services can be found based on some predetermined service
relationship models.
[0036] Users can tag web services in various manners, such as,
tagging different functions with web 2.0, in such a manner, the
potential relationships between those services can be realized
through analyzing the correlation and the similarity
therebetween.
[0037] Users may provide various tags to every service, and the
possible associations between services can be found by means of
those tags (in other words, other services possibly associated one
service can be found by means of the tags assigned to that
service). Those associated services can be recommended to users. As
to book purchase, other services having tags associated with book
purchase can be found.
[0038] There may be an extent of similarity between the description
A of one service and the description B of another service, and can
be advised to users as a potential association. Wherein, one
service may comprise note A, and another service may comprise note
B.
[0039] Furthermore, each web service may comprise metadata to
characterize itself, for example, XML formatted metadata may be
used to define the input and output of a web service (such as, data
types of input and output data), and the relationships between
services also can be determined according to such formal
descriptions.
[0040] The associations between web services can be determined in
the above manners (e.g., according to metadata, descriptive note of
a web service, and tags). For example, statistical models can be
used to determine association scores between services. Hence, the
associations between web services can be determined, as well as
those services with higher associations.
[0041] A user selection of a web service is a procedure that turns
a possible correlation into an assured association, and as a
feedback, can be used to optimize the advised service options. The
selections of users are assured decisions of users, and the
computer calculations mentioned above are uncertain, inaccurate,
and indistinct, which only can be converted into indeed possible
data through user selections.
[0042] The longer the system according to the embodiment of this
invention runs and the more people the system reaches, the more
feedbacks the system can accumulate and the more accurate web
services it can advise to users, and therefore the system can
become more "clever".
[0043] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram for processing services
according to another embodiment of this invention. The system may
comprise a request reception module 210 for receiving a request for
a service; a result transmission module 220 for transmitting the
result of the service in which at least one data item is tagged; an
other service determination module 230 for determining other
services associated with the service based on a service template of
the service in response to a selection of the tagged data item; and
a service option provision module 240 for providing the other
services associated with the service as options, wherein the other
services take the at least one data item as inputs and provide
outputs thereof.
[0044] Wherein the other service determination module 230 may
further comprise a service template determination module for
determining the service templates of the other services; and an
other template determination module for determining the other
service templates associated with the service template, wherein the
other service determination module 230 determines the other
services based on the other service templates.
[0045] Wherein, the service option provision module may be further
configured to determine the context of the service; and determine
the service template of the service based on the context of the
service.
[0046] Wherein, the service option provision module 240 may further
comprise a rank module for ranking the other services, and the
service option provision module 240 is further configured to
provide the other services associated with that service as options
according to their ranks.
[0047] Wherein the rank module may further comprise an association
score determination module for determining the association scores
between the other services and that service according to the
association scores between the other service templates and that
service template; and the rank module can be further configured to
rank the other services based on the association scores, wherein
services with higher association scores are ranked before services
with lower scores.
[0048] Wherein, the above system may further comprises a feedback
reception module for receiving a selection of another service from
among the other services, and increasing the association score
between the service template of the another selected service and
the template of that service. Wherein, the service templates may
comprise the URIs of corresponding services.
[0049] Wherein, the above system may further comprise a service
association module for receiving a selection of one of the other
services; and associating the service with the selected
service.
[0050] The present invention also provides a storage medium or
signal carrier comprising instructions for carrying out the method
of the present invention.
[0051] The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate
the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible
implementations of systems, methods and computer program products
according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this
regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent
a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more
executable instructions for implementing the specified logical
function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative
implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of
the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in
succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or
the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order,
depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted
that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart
illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams
and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special
purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions
or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer
instructions.
[0052] As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the
present invention may be embodied as a system, method, computer
program product or any combination thereof. Accordingly, the
present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware
embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware,
resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining
software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to
herein as a "circuit," "module" or "system." Furthermore, the
present invention may take the form of a computer program product
embodied in any tangible medium of expression having computer
usable program code embodied in the medium.
[0053] Any combination of one or more computer usable or computer
readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer-usable or
computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an
electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or
semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium.
More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the
computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical
connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette,
a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory
(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash
memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory
(CDROM), an optical storage device, a transmission media such as
those supporting the Internet or an intranet, or a magnetic storage
device. Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium
could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the
program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured,
via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium,
then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable
manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. In the
context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable
medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate,
propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection
with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The
computer-usable medium may include a propagated data signal with
the computer-usable program code embodied therewith, either in
baseband or as part of a carrier wave. The computer usable program
code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but
not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF,
etc.
[0054] Computer program code for carrying out operations of the
present invention may be written in any combination of one or more
programming languages, including an object oriented programming
language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional
procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming
language or similar programming languages. The program code may
execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's
computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's
computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote
computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may
be connected to the user's computer through any type of network,
including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN),
or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example,
through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
[0055] The present invention has been described in detail in
connection with preferable embodiments. It will be appreciated
however those embodiments are merely illustrations and not
limitations of this invention. Many modifications and variations
will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without
departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
* * * * *
References